AVENGERS #369 – December 1993

Exodus creates a psionic shield over Genosha, preventing anyone else from entering the country.He takes Luna from Fabian Cortez and apparently kills him.The Avengers and X-Men meet and respond to Professor Xavier’s call for help.They arrive and assist Xavier, Beast, and US Agent against the Magistrates’ backup.Exodus faces the combined teams, inciting the Mutates into violence and threatening to kill Luna for the sin of being born human.Xavier and the Black Knight defeat Exodus, after Jean Grey telepathically sends information on his weaknesses.Exodus leaves, but not before injuring Quicksilver.Xavier appeals to the Genoshans to stop the violence, asking them not to follow the example of a man willing to kill a child.

Gimmicks

This issue has a cardstock, foil embossed cover.

Review

And, in the final part of this storyline, the X-Men and Avengers fight the same villains they’ve been fighting for the past three chapters, only now they do it together.This structure could actually work if the villains were remotely interesting, but generic Mutates and generic guys in body armor get old fast.Almost two full issues of this crossover were dedicated to selling Exodus as a major villain, but in the end he’s defeated in a two page sequence after Xavier mind-blasts him and Black Knight slices him with his sword.All of the effort spent on building him up seems wasted.Cortez’s apparent death is really the only aspect of the crossover that impacts continuity, and it’s treated pretty casually.Taken on its own, though, it’s actually not that bad of an issue.Harras seems to be invested in the story, and Epting does a good job on the X-Men/Avengers team-up scenes.As the finale to a five-part crossover though, you get the feeling that a lot of the previous chapters have just been filler.